Facebook can be a powerful and effective platform to build your own community of raving fans on. With over 500 million active users, your ideal customers are likely hanging out there. So how do you get them to join your community? And more importantly, how do you get them toengagewith you within that community?
It’s one thing to have a bunch of fans who don’t ever talk to you. It’s quite another to have an active community of raving fans who love what you’re doing and love to interact with you. Let’s look at how to build that community of raving fans so you can get your big message out there.
I’ll be teaching you how to do this on a Facebook Page, as that is the proper way to market your business on Facebook. If you are using a personal Profile, much of this will still be done the same, though there will be features that are not available on Profiles.
1. Invite People to Join You
Your first step is to start telling people about your Facebook Page. To make it easy to do this, make sure you set up your custom URL for your Page. You can do this as soon as you have 25 fans. Just go to facebook.com/username to choose yours and set it up. Pick something that is your name, your business name or something else easily identifiable with your Page and make it as short and memorable as possible.
Now that you have your custom URL, you can start putting it on things and sharing it with people. Use that URL everywhere you can. Link to it from your other social media profiles, your website, and any other online profiles or sites you have. Have it printed on your business cards, fliers, brochures and any other physical marketing pieces. Include it in your email signature. Wherever you have a chance to mention your Facebook community and invite people to join you there, take it!
If you have followers on other sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn or an email list, let them know about your new Facebook Page and invite them to connect with you there. If you have a personal Profile on Facebook, as well as your Page, send out an invitation to your Facebook friends to check out your Page – just be sure to pick and choose who you send it to, so you’re not bugging people who you know aren’t interested.
You can even mention your Facebook community in your elevator pitch or your introduction at a speaking event, or even in your Author Bio if you’re writing content for magazines, blogs or other media.
These are just some ideas to get you started. Watch for other opportunities to let people know about your Facebook community, and you may be surprised at what shows up and who takes you up on your invitation!
2. Give a Reason to Join You
It’s not about you. Your fans and potential fans do not care about you. They only care about what you can do for them, and whether or not your Page is interesting or useful enough to be worth the time checking it out and joining.
So make it all about them and what’s in it for them. Talk about those benefits, the results you can help them get, and let them know WHY they should join your Page.
The best way to do this is through a landing tab, which is a sub-page of your Facebook Page that you set to be the default page that people land on when they visit your Facebook Page. You can even set this up so that non-fans see one view and fans see a different view. Take advantage of this and set up your non-fan page to let people know why they should join your Page. Tell them what they’ll get by being a fan, and be sure to make it nice and juicy for them by listing out all those great benefits your fans get just by following you and being part of your community.
On the fans-only page, deliver on that promise you made on your non-fan page. As soon as someone clicks Like they are taken to this fans-only page, so it’s a great opportunity to give them that first taste of what you have for them. This could be an article, some tips, a downloadable ebook or audio, a video, or something else that gives them some of that info they are looking for. Make it something that they can take action on and get some results, and you’ll REALLY get their attention.
When telling people about your Page, whether in person, online or through your print material, be sure to mention the benefits to them, as well. When you do this, they’ll be more likely to take the time to visit your Page and become a fan.
3. Be Useful, Helpful and Interesting
When choosing what to post on your Facebook Page, again remember that it’s not about you. Look at what your fans want from you and share things that will be useful, helpful and interesting to them.
This is a great time to pull out those benefits that you listed earlier and look at how you can deliver content that gives your fans those benefits. Look at what problem they have that you help solve. What can you give them that will get them some results and move them closer to that ultimate solution they want?
This could be tutorials, quick tips, inspirational quotes, articles, videos, audios, and other resources and pieces of content. See which types of content your fans like and deliver the info in whatever way they engage with the most.
When you truly deliver value through your Facebook Page and give your fans a taste of what you have to offer, they’ll want more and they’ll be more likely to purchase from you when you make them an offer.
Some other tips for posting content to your Facebook Page:
- Post regularly and consistently – I recommend at least once per day
- Don’t post too often – test different frequencies and see what your fans respond to best as far as how often and how much
- Plan your updates out ahead of time so you never run out of things to post
- Schedule updates ahead of time using HootSuite.com
4. Invite Engagement
It’s a great idea to invite your fans to comment, ask questions or interact with you in whatever way you want them to. When you post an update, you can add a question onto the end of it asking them what they think, if they’ve had any experience with this particular topic, or if they have any questions about it. You can post updates that are just questions, as well, and invite them to share their thoughts about a topic.
When replying to comments, look for ways to take the conversation further. Is there a question you can ask about something your fan mentioned to continue the discussion? Be careful that you don’t just ask for the sake of asking. You need to be genuinely interested in your fans and in connecting with them. They’ll pick up on whether you’re actually interested or not.
Be quick to thank your fans for their comments, as well. Let them know that you appreciate them taking the time to engage with you.
5. Follow up Quickly
When you do receive those comments on your updates or directly on your Page Wall, be sure to follow up quickly. Do not let those comments sit there unanswered for days before someone replies to them. This tells your fans that you don’t really care and their comments aren’t important.
By default, you receive email notifications for every new comment on your Page, so take advantage of those notifications to let you know when there is a new comment. You can then check into your Page at least once a day to reply to comments and just make sure that nothing has been missed that needs your attention.
You don’t have to respond to comments immediately, but do try to get to them as quickly as you can so you can keep that conversation going while it’s still fresh in your fan’s mind.
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